Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Danny Werfel said the IRS is set to release a strategic operating plan by the end of the week that outlines how the agency will spend nearly $80 billion in funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act, Thomson Reuters reported Wednesday.
At his swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday, he said the upcoming plan will offer details on how the IRS will implement more digital platforms, add service locations, hire more personnel, end long wait times over the phone and respond to issues via electronic means.
Werfel, who was confirmed by the Senate in early March for the top post at IRS, highlighted the need for the adoption of modern technologies during his speech, including investments in digital scanning technologies to mitigate errors and speed up the processing of paper tax returns.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen attended the ceremony and highlighted the two major priorities that Werfel will focus on as the 50th IRS commissioner.
Those priorities are “dramatically improving taxpayer service and ensuring that large corporations and the wealthy pay the taxes they owe,” Yellen said in her prepared remarks.
The secretary cited the need to invest in data and analytics to facilitate audits of large corporations, complex partnerships and high earners and other technological improvements that could help the IRS expedite processes and avoid errors in tax returns.
“We must invest in technology that unlocks increased productivity for IRS employees, improves automated services for taxpayers, and digitizes many processes that for too long have been handled on paper,” Yellen noted.
